STORRS — The UConn women's basketball team played at Gampel Pavilion on Monday night for the first time since the Huskies stumbled against Notre Dame and let the Irish take from them a game they felt they had won.

The frustration that still lingered from their only loss of the season became raw and emotional again after a disappointing first half against Duke. The Huskies' lack of focus led to 12 turnovers and allowed the Blue Devils to stay uncomfortably close in a game in which UConn was shooting 50 percent from the field.

Despite the fact his team was leading by two points against the only remaining undefeated team, Coach Geno Auriemma exploded in the locker room during halftime.

"We've been just missing on a lot of things, you know?" Auriemma said. "We just miss this pass or this cut or that defensive stop or that defensive rotation. We're winning by a lot, we're doing some great things, and we have a great record. But you can just tell it's not quite there and you can't put your finger on it. You get unbelievably frustrated because you think you have an answer, and you don't. Then you try another answer and you keep coming up empty. Tonight the frustration just came out of me."

Auriemma forcefully explained to his players that you can't keep making the same mistakes if you want to win a national championship. At some point, you have to become accountable. He reminded them that they had rallied from a nine-point deficit against Notre Dame to take a five-point second-half lead. And then rather than use that momentum and energy to put the Irish away, they let the game slip away.

In the face of a difficult challenge, they weren't mentally tough enough to respond. Monday he was watching his team try to give away another game at Gampel due to lack of focus and killer instinct. Rather than provide too much tactical advice, he ranted and inspired.

"We turned all that frustration into concentration and aggressiveness that helped us find a little bit of what was missing," Auriemma. "It is more about, 'We've got to find that missing piece.' We found it. And now the key is holding onto it and adding to it."

What the Huskies found was that if one of them played with energy, focus and aggressive passion, the rest would follow.

Kelly Faris took the lead, scoring 18 points with 12 rebounds and six assists, and more importantly, playing with an edge.

See WOMEN, Page 5C

Bria Hartley played with more of a purpose than she had all season and dished out a career-high nine assists. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis played with enough energy to tally 21 points and six rebounds. Breanna Stewart put a sluggish start behind her and in the second half scored 13 points with four rebounds and three blocks while playing very solid defensively.

Mosqueda-Lewis said Auriemma challenged them at halftime to prove to him they were capable of doing things that he wasn't sure they had the ability to do: play with physicality, an aggressive mindset and a whole new level of intensity worthy of a champion. He told them that his great teams of the past would get so angry at him for insinuating they didn't have enough mental toughness that they would respond immediately and emphatically.

"So we wanted to come out in the second half and prove him wrong that we are tough, we are stronger and we do take pride in the way we play," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "So we went out there, took care of the ball and followed Kelly's lead. And we just wanted to go out there and say, 'We owe it to ourselves. We owe it to each other to work hard and make sure that what we've been doing in practice is going to be worth something."

In the second half, they outhustled, pushed around and mentally beat down the Blue Devils until they gave up. UConn outscored Duke, 47-19, to win the game by 30, 79-49.

Auriemma was so pleased that when Faris nearly stole a pass with 4:43 left in front of the UConn bench, he excitedly shook two tightly clenched fists in the air and gave her a little chest bump.

Faris said the second half was a real emotional high for everyone, but now the Huskies have to sustain that type of execution and effort.

"We've had some ups and downs," Faris said. "There's been times when it's like we hit our peak and we're like, 'Wow, we did really good today.' And then there's times it could've been better. This is a good opportunity for us to really build on it. We came off our Stanford game, and we didn't really build that much on it. It was a good win for us. We did what we needed to do, but we didn't use that. And I think at this point right now, we can't give up another opportunity to build on it."

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